


Obligatory Beach Episode

by AdrianaintheSnow



Series: Labeled [46]
Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Gen, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Scars
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-06
Updated: 2021-01-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 20:33:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27412783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AdrianaintheSnow/pseuds/AdrianaintheSnow
Summary: Virgil gets to go to the beach for the first time in his life.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Creativity | Roman "Princey" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Logic | Logan Sanders, Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Morality | Patton Sanders, Logic | Logan Sanders/Morality | Patton Sanders
Series: Labeled [46]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1616662
Comments: 63
Kudos: 308





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> (They’re a little mean to Virgil at the beginning, but I promise it is all gentle ribbing and Virgil is not in any distress no matter how much he complains.)

Virgil had put himself in a most perilous position, he realized far too late into the two-hour car ride. The goal had been to keep Roman and Remus from killing each other on the long trip by sitting between them in the back of Virgil’s fathers’ car. He had quickly learned this was a mistake.

“Get off,” he groused to Roman, shoving at him.

“Sorry,” Roman said, sounding not sorry at all and making no move to give into Virgil’s demands, “it’s all of these turns.”

“Centripetal force, Virgil!” Remus claimed from half under Virgil as Roman was currently using his body weight to shove Virgil into him.

“Centripetal force my _ass,_ ” Virgil spat shoving with all his might at Roman and getting nowhere.

“Now, now,” Remus chided. “No bad words.” He gave Virgil a few quick pokes to the side and Virgil slapped at him.

“Oh,” Roman said, “do you feel that? It’s another turn.”

“No,” Virgil whined, “let me go.”

The did not heed his complaining, and as the car turned another corner, both Remus and Roman shifted as one along with the force from the car turning and flopped all three of them to the other side so Virgil was now laying on top of Roman and Remus was on top of him.

“I will end the both of you,” Virgil swore, only to get bopped on the nose by Roman. They’d been playing this game of exaggerating how much force the turns had on them every time for the past half an hour now and did not seem to be getting bored. In fact, they seemed to be getting more and more amused at his every reaction.

It had been a series of mistakes. The first of which, Virgil would claim to anyone who would listen, was befriending either of the two jackass twins that he was now stuck between. The second was asking them along to the beach when Patton and Logan had suggested the day trip. The third was the aforementioned allowing himself to be in the middle seat of the back of the car. Then, the fourth mistake came when he’d stupidly made the absolutely horrible error of explaining that it was his first time ever going to the beach and that he’d never really gone on any trips before Patton and Logan.

Yet, the fifth mistake, and the nail in the coffin was definitely when Remus commented, “Oh, that’s why you gave in and sat in the middle so easily.”

And Virgil had responded, “What’s wrong with the middle?”

He had not understood the extent of his mistake at the time, but he had known that he’d made some error at the way Remus’s eyes lit up and he looked over at Roman like their birthday had come early.

They had decided to give him the “full sibling experience.” Which, Virgil had found out, involved being as annoying as humanly possible in every conceivable way.

They’d taught him many, many car “games” over the past couple of hours. These games involved Punch Buggy which Virgil still did not understand the rules of. Just every so often he’d get a gentle bump to his shoulder and one of them would shriek the words “punch buggy” and some color in his ear.

They had also played “Virgil Ball” which involved shoving him back and forth between them, usually yelling “catch” and sometime saying “score.” Virgil was not sure what constituted a score, but they always seemed even more energetic when they got one.

Eventually Virgil had decided to try to not react as they seemed to grow more and more amused every time he did. However, then they made that a game in and of itself. They took bets about who could get him to react to something first. When he had finally broken down and hissed at Remus, Roman had just given him a high five. Virgil had never seen the two of them work so well together before. He guessed his plan of keeping them from fighting had worked.

His dads had been traitors too, seeming amused by his plight every time he attempted to complain to them. Patton had reached back and patted him on the knee a couple of minutes ago, and Logan would glance back at them in the mirror every couple of minutes and just smirk when Virgil sent him a glare that was hotter than a million suns.

There was not a turn after that, so the two of them let him up for the moment. Virgil huffed and crossed his arms over his chest as Remus reached down to grab a fresh soda from the cooler wedged between Virgil’s legs.

Remus eyed him while straightening back up and titled his head with his brow furrowed in question.

“Your death will be slow and torturous,” Virgil proclaimed. The slightly concerned expression melted off of Remus’s face instantly and a moment later, Virgil was shrieking out a curse as a freezing cold soda can was pressed into his neck.

“Language, Virgil,” Patton reminded, voice far more amused than chiding.

“Help me, father,” Virgil spat back.

“Aw, we’re almost there, kiddo,” Patton assured, turning back to the front.

Virgil spent the next few minutes trying to wrestle the soda can out of Remus’s grip while being hindered by the fact that Roman kept poking him in the back. By the time he finally managed to get the can out of his hand, the car was coming to a stop. Patton apparently had not been lying about them almost being there.

“Thank fuck,” Virgil spat.

“ _Virgil_.”

“I’m disowning you, Patton.”

“Doubtlessly,” Logan commented dryly.

“You’re also on thin ice,” Virgil growled. Logan just hummed and unbuckled his seatbelt.

“Did someone say ice?” Roman asked just as something cold slipped down the side of Virgil’s hoodie.

“You’re dead! You’re so dead!” Virgil yelped, struggling to get his seatbelt off as Roman bailed out of the car laughing and shut the door behind him. Virgil had just managed to get his seatbelt off and turned to get out of the car after Remus who had exited at a more sedate pace, but Remus slammed the door in his face.

“Oh, sorry, were you getting out on this side?” he asked through the door. Virgil flipped him of and changed directions, lunging for Roman’s door.

Virgil’s first moments ever on a beach were spent chasing and tackling Roman into the sand.


	2. Chapter 2

“First thing’s first!” Patton proclaimed once Virgil had finished murdering his best friend, and they’d dragged everything out of the car onto the beach. The beach was luckily not too overly crowded, so they were able to put their stuff down a good distance away from any other people. Patton pulled a familiar bottle from one of the bags he’d just set down. “Sunscreen!”

“No?” Virgil tried, eyeing the bottle with distain.

“Yes, Virgil,” Patton replied.

Virgil stuck his bottom lip out in a pout, but Patton’s face just hardened. “Logan!” he called.

Logan looked over at them from where he’d been spreading out a blanket and frowned at the scene. “Are we really having this argument again?” he asked, standing up and striding over to them. “Put the sunscreen on or I’m putting it on for you.”

“It’s _gross._ ”

Logan instantly went into lecture mode. “While it is true that people of your skin tone are one of the groups least likely to develop skin cancer due to sun exposure, it is still a very real threat to your health. This is only increased by the fact that you did not wear sunscreen at a young age and had multiple bad sunburns in your life. Not to mention that melanoma is often more advanced by the time it is diagnosed for your skin tone group and therefore more deadly if developed. Furthermore…”

Virgil snatched the bottle from Patton’s hand. “Fine, fine,” he said, knowing he would not win that argument. “ _‘FuRthER mORe,’_ ” he said under his breath while turning away from them. He was flicked in the back of the head by thin air for that one.

“That goes for you two too,” Patton said to Remus and Roman.

“Oh, come on,” Remus said. “Look at us. Does it look like we’re going to get sunburns?”

“You’re more at risk than Virgil,” Logan informed them firmly. “You’re wearing it.”

Virgil peeled off his hoodie, so he was just in his long-sleeved swim shirt and trunks and started rubbing the goop into his skin as Logan quickly won the argument with Remus as well.

“Under your shirt and on your feet too,” Logan reminded.

“Yeah, yeah,” Virgil agreed unhappily. He threw the sunscreen bottle at Remus when he was done since Roman had the second bottle already. “Satisfied?” he asked Logan.

“Yes,” Logan said, leaning forward to rub the top of Virgil’s nose. Virgil scrunched it up. “You had a bit not rubbed in there.”

“One of these days I’m going to figure out how to make the sun not burn my skin by pure force of will,” Virgil grumbled so only Logan could hear. “And on that day, I will never have to wear sunscreen again.”

Logan chuckled. “A very good use for your skills and energy, indeed.”

Patton came over then and plopped a bottle of sunscreen into Logan’s hand. Logan gave the sunscreen bottle an unhappy look himself. Virgil had no question that Logan would have been the one throwing a hissy fit himself if Virgil was not there to pressure him into being a good example. As it were, he started to reluctantly rub the sun-paste into his own skin.

Patton seemed pleased by his compliance and left him to it to go back to setting up the little camp for them. He positioned the cooler full of drinks and snacks behind the line of towels and the two umbrellas.

“Great,” Remus said. “Now that we’re all covered in sticky white stuff.” Roman reached over to shove him. “Can we go in the water now please, Dr. Patton?”

“Sure,” Patton agreed with a smile.

“Yes!” Remus slid out of his sandals and grabbed Roman by the arm, starting to tug him towards the water. They paused a few feet away, however, and looked back.

“You coming, Virgil?” Roman asked.

Virgil hesitated and looked past them to the waves, suddenly feeling an intense wave of anxiety as they crashed into the shore. He’d been looking forward to this trip because he’d wanted to swim in the ocean for the first time. At least, he’d wanted to swim in the abstract, but now looking at the large body of water he could not see the bottom of or know what was in it…

“I might… not right now,” Virgil said. “I’m not really in the mood to swim.”

Patton smiled at him softly. “That’s okay kiddo,” he said. “You can always swim later if you want or not at all.”

“Yeah, it’s fine,” Remus said. “We’ll try you again later, but for now.” He shoved his brother towards the water. He stumbled and glared.

Virgil looked to Patton. “Thanks,” he said.

“I’m also going to wait on swimming for now,” Logan said.

“Sounds good,” Patton said. “I don’t mind swimming now, so I’m going to go supervise the twins, so hopefully no one drowns.”

Virgil turned to Logan as Patton walked away. “You can go in the water,” he said with a frown. “You don’t have to stay with me.”

Logan just hummed. “I’m sure at some point Patton will by some means coerce me into getting soaked, but for now, I am content to remain with you on shore. I prefer it even. There is plenty to do on the beach besides swim.”

“Like what?” Virgil asked skeptically.

“You have never been to a beach before, correct?” Logan asked. Virgil shook his head. “Then you have never seen tide pools in person. They can be quite interesting, and I enjoy studying the creatures in them, if you would like to join me.”

“Yeah, sure,” Virgil agreed.

They spent the next hour or so walking around the beach and staring into the tide pools as Logan gave him fun facts about anything they saw. They’d been discussing the sculpins they’d found in one when Virgil looked up and noticed Patton approaching from behind Logan.

He was holding a bucket.

When he saw him watching, Patton put a finger over his mouth to shush him. Virgil raised an eyebrow but didn’t say anything as Logan continued to speak.

He must have noticed something: the shadow falling over him or the way Virgil’s eyes kept darting to behind him, because he cut off abruptly just as Patton moved to hover the bucket over his head. 

“Patton,” Logan said casually as a bit of water dripped on his head.

“Yes dear?” Patton asked innocently.

“Would you like me to hold your head under the water?”

Patton just giggled and with seemingly no remorse or hesitance, tilted the bucket to pour the entire container of dirty water on top of Logan’s head.

Logan slowly sighed as Patton immediately took off down the beach. “Excuse me, Virgil,” he said, voice clipped. “I must go murder your father.” Virgil shot him a thumbs up, biting back a laugh as he stood and turned, stalking off after Patton.

Virgil wandered back over to where the cooler was to grab a bottle of water. Remus was already sitting on one of the towels.

“Where’s Roman?”

“Bathroom,” Remus answered. “Your dads are gross, by the way.” Despite the fact that Patton had been running and Logan had never gone beyond a speed walk, Logan had managed to catch up to him and was now pulling Patton towards the water. Patton’s laughter pierced the air. “It should be illegal for old people to flirt.”

Virgil snorted. “Try living with them.” As soon as Logan managed to get Patton deep enough, he made good on his promise to dunk Patton’s head under the water. Though, by the way Patton was still laughing when he popped back up, it didn’t seem to be much of a punishment. “Aaaaand now they’re kissing.”

“Bleck.” Remus said. He turned to Virgil and smiled up at him. “So, what up with you and the water?”

Virgil glanced at him; he rubbed at the scars he could feel under his swim shirt. “Very big. Very deep. Didn’t learn to swim until I was 16.”

“Oof that’ll do it.” Remus said. “Want floaties?”

Virgil glared at him.

“I’m serious!”

“No, I don’t want floaties.”

“Come on, you’re really going to go to the beach and not even get in the ocean?”

Virgil bit his lip.

“Come on,” he tempted. “We’ll just go where you can stand for now.”

“…Fine.”

“Fine what?” Roman asked as he walked back over to them.

Remus popped to his feet. “Virgil’s going in the water!” he declared before bending down to pick Virgil up and throw him over his shoulder.

“ _Hey!_ ” Virgil yelled, slapping him on the back. “I can walk!”

“You can walk in the water!”

Virgil hit him on the back. “Bastard!” That did not stop Remus, however, who continued to carry him all the way into the water. To be fair, it was a lot easier to enter the water when he didn’t have to walk into it himself.


End file.
